Summer Examination Result Days – Request for support

Post 16/A level results day is 16^th August

KS4/GCSE results day is 23^rd August

The Local Authority greatly values the support of all Warwickshire’s state-funded secondary schools and academies during August, providing provisional Post 16 and Key Stage 4 results.  This allows an early view of the 2018 performance of young people across Warwickshire.

The collections will run again this year on both result days and many of you will already have received e-mails from our Insight Service (insight@warwickshire.gov.uk) confirming school contact and collection process details. 

Like last year, we’ll be asking colleagues to complete these google forms, if possible by 11am on each results day:

• Post 16 collection form
• Key Stage 4 collection form

Please do not delay your return even if your school’s results are incomplete, please include a comment in the space provided on the form to draw attention to any shortcomings that you know or suspect.

All schools that agree that their "data may be shared with other Warwickshire state funded schools", will receive a school level spreadsheet of provisional results once compiled, usually the day after each results day.  If you indicate that the data is just for Local Authority use at this time you will not receive this spreadsheet.

Any queries at all, please contact the Insight Service: insight@warwickshire.gov.uk

New web-portal to provide schools with access to up-to-date intelligence and reports

** Please look out for an email to the headteacher in September with log in details for Perspective Lite. **

During the summer term staff in Education and Learning have been piloting a new module of the Nexus system called Pendulum. Nexus is a secure portal used by local authorities to analyse and report on education data and Pendulum is an additional function that Warwickshire has chosen to adopt to enable the Council to effectively monitor all of it's interactions with schools and settings.

The Pendulum module sits inside Nexus and will be used as a whole Council tool, which will enable us to save management information about schools and settings in one place. This will mean intelligence about individual settings is easily accessible to officers and that this is not lost when members of staff move on.

It offers a 'dashboard' style layout with one page for each school/setting; from this page officers can access:

• the latest Ofsted reports from the Ofsted website
• Records of Visits (these are shared with the school/setting)
• Quick notes (these are not viewable by schools/settings)

The system also includes a location map, school details from the census and live data received for national assessments (primary only). The system will not include any child-level information.

Pendulum allows settings to be sorted into various groupings to provide a useful picture of the provision in a particular area, for example they can be grouped by primary consortia, secondary area partnership and schools within a MAT.

Pendulum is now up and running and being used by officers to store records of visit and information relating to individual settings.

Perspective Lite is the free toolkit provided to education settings that provides them with a window into Pendulum. It contains a range of tools that will provide up-to-date intelligence in a number of areas such as local authority documents, visit reports, realtime data trends, interactive reports and news. Schools/settings will only be able to view their own page in Perspective Lite, whereas Council officers will have access to the information held on all schools/settings via Pendulum. 

Infographic - tells the story of your school on a single page

Perspective Lite will be rolled out to to all Warwickshire schools in the autumn term. In September headteachers will receive an email containing log in details for Perspective Lite. Once logged in to the system, this will enable them to view their school's page and to see their 'inbox' where news articles and recent updates are stored.

** Please look out for an email to the headteacher in September with log in details for Perspective Lite. **

Demonstrations in the Autumn Term

To provide some initial training on how the system works, demonstrations will take place at the Secondary Area Headteachers' meetings (CASH, RASH, SWEP, NASCHL) and the Primary Chairs' Consortia Group (formerly PSIB) in September. If primary consortia would like further support then Phil Ransford, Project Manager for the Pendulum role out would be happy to attend individual consortium meetings in the Autumn Term.

In the meantime, if you have any queries you can contact Phil at philipransford@warwickshire.gov.uk or by telephone: 01926 742064.

New statutory safeguarding guidance

The Department for Education has published two pieces of statutory safeguarding guidance. These set the framework within which all practitioners should operate in order to protect children from abuse and neglect and promote their best interests, they can be accessed here and are:

• Revised Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance; and
• Local Safeguarding – Transitional Arrangements statutory guidance.

Ofsted inspection of Warwickshire's 'Children in Need'

Yesterday (Tuesday 10th July) the County Council received formal notification from Ofsted that they will be undertaking a focused visit next week between Tuesday 17 July - Wednesday 18 July.  

The visit will focus on ‘Children in Need, and those subject to a Child Protection Plan’, including:

• thresholds  

• step-up/step-down between children in need and child protection  

• children on the edge of care  

• children subject to letter before proceedings and the quality and impact of pre-proceedings interventions  

• children in need at risk of family breakdown  

• the quality of decisions about entering care  

• protection of disabled children

The inspectors will be based at Saltisford Office Park, Warwick and will be visiting teams and sites during their visit.  

In advance of their visit we will be providing them with key documentation and performance information.  If you are asked to provide information, it would be really helpful if you could do so as soon as possible.

During their visit the inspectors will:

• Meet with social workers to understand the nature and impact of their work with children and families

• Observe practice in multi-agency/single agency meeting or part of meeting

• Shadow staff in their day-to day work

• Scrutinise electronic records

• Evaluate children’s records that have already been audited

• Hear views of Children and Young People and their families

• See and hear the impact of local consultation with Children & Young People

• Test thresholds

• Review a sample of supervision records and carers records

As appropriate could you please also notify any local partners you work closely with.  

As an organisation we put children at the heart of all we do and we are committed to doing the very best to protect children and help them reach their full potential. Keeping children safe, and helping them to be healthy and happy is everyone’s responsibility.

We will keep everyone informed of key developments as soon as we can.  Your co-operation and support during the inspection process is greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions about the inspection please contact the Ofsted Inspection Planning Team: OfstedInspection@warwickshire.gov.uk

New2RE Programme for Newly Qualified teachers of Religious Education in Secondary Schools

The National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) has been funded to provide a three year programme of support for RE NQTs. The programme recognises that the teaching of RE requires rapid development of subject specific knowledge and pedagogy and that support for this is not always readily available. By providing a tailored programme to support the NQT that will complement a school’s own programme New2RE has been successful in improving the retention rate of NQTs in RE over the last three years. The benefits of the programme are worth £1000 per year and include NATRE membership, a specialist mentor, a 30 hour residential course, free courses and webinars and printed resources.

Further information on the programme including an application form can be found here https://www.natre.org.uk/news/latest-news/new2re-programme-september-2018/

SSIF 1 Update for SSIF Schools

Please look out for a SSIF Summer Update email coming soon containing important information about:

• Peer Review
• Data Collection
• Autumn Term Conference (Thursday 15th November 2018) - participation of all SSIF 1 schools is expected, more detail to follow
• Action Research

Meanwhile please note that the first hub meetings will be taking place as follows:

Central/South Area Peer review hub meeting -  Tuesday 11th September at Stratford upon Avon School, 4pm - 5pm

Northern Area hub meeting - Thursday 13th September at Birchwood Primary School, 4pm - 5pm.

It is expected that all schools will be taking part in this strand of SSIF work unless they can evidence participation in alternative quality review process with demonstrable impact. If you haven't been able to take part in the training sessions so far, look out for the SSIF Summer Update email for details of how you can catch up.

Summer Term Headteachers' Meeting

 

We are pleased that so many of you found Sir John Timpson's keynote speech 'inspirational' (a recurring term used in the evaluation forms); his extraordinarily honest speech encouraged headteachers to refocus on their core purpose and left people with a clear message linked to improving leadership and provision for all pupils. 

 

 

All headteachers will receive an email containing the papers and presentations shared at the meeting from the schoolpartnerships@warwickshire.gov.uk email. 

 

Perspective Lite

Various updates were shared at the meeting, including a brief demonstration and explanation of the new web-portal recently implemented by the Council to offer a more joined up and transparent service for schools. Further information about the system and how schools will benefit can be found in the article in this issue.

 

*** Please remember to look out for the email in September with your log in details for Perspective Lite - this will be sent directly to the headteacher's email address***

New Teaching School designation for St John's Primary

Harmful Practices web pages are now live

A new resource has been launched on the Safe in Warwickshire website to provide information and advice for professionals to help tackle three categories of crime which can cause great harm to women and girls.

The Harmful Practices section of the website has a wealth of information, national resources, e-learning modules and details of local support services for:-

• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM);
• Honour Based Violence (HBV);
• Forced Marriage.

To access the pages, visit www.safeinwarwickshire.com/harmfulpractices

It has been designed to allow professionals working in the community to understand the issues, spot the signs and know what to do if they have concerns about an individual.

To help promote the new resource, posters have been produced for display in offices and other work spaces, which can be downloaded directly from the site.  In addition, hard copies of the posters are available for anyone who is unable to download and print their own. These can be requested by emailing vawg@warwickshire.gov.uk

Please promote these pages widely to your colleagues and partners.

For any further feedback or information, please contact the Community Safety Project Team at Warwickshire County Council by email at communitysafety@warwickshire.gov.uk

Have your say on health needs in your area

A survey has launched  to find out more about the unique health and wellbeing needs of Warwickshire’s various local communities, including children, young people and parents. 

WCC and its partners recognise that the needs of different communities throughout the county will differ greatly depending on a range of factors such as population demographics, infrastructure, community safety and many more.

As part of a larger project to gain more insight into life in Warwickshire’s communities, a survey has opened for staff and partners to let the county council know what, in their opinion, the current health and wellbeing needs of areas they are familiar with are and any ideas they have for improvement.

The responses to this survey will form part of the 2018-2020 Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and will help inform service delivery and development.

The JSNA is a review undertaken every few years by partners including WCC, Warwickshire Health & Wellbeing Board, the five District and Borough councils, local Clinical Commissioning Groups, third sector organisations and council-commissioned services. Working with partners to look at the current offer for different Warwickshire areas will help to reduce duplication and strengthen the evaluation of initiatives through use of a common evidence base.

The JSNA is a really useful tool which is accessed both by teams within WCC and other stakeholders to inform commissioning decisions and promote innovation and a solution-focused approach, ensuring services are well-placed to help the people who need them most.

Data from the JSNA can also be used by a range of agencies across sectors to support specific activity such as funding bids and tender applications.

The survey takes about ten minutes to complete. To have your say, go to http://bit.ly/JSNAProfessionals

Please note, if you are a resident of Warwickshire and wish to comment from that perspective, please use http://bit.ly/JSNAResidents

Schools encouraged to go for Food For Life Award

Educaterers are encouraging schools to enrol before the end of the academic year if they want support to achieve the Soil Association’s Food for Life Award. The independent award scheme is designed to engage, motivate and involve everyone and is a brilliant way to embed food education in everyday learning.

A Food for Life Schools Award demonstrates that your school is doing fantastic work to provide healthy school meals, great lunchtimes and food education that has a positive impact on both pupils and the wider community in terms of engagement, attainment and well-being through engaging them in growing food, cooking from scratch, connecting with local farms and putting food at the centre of the curriculum.

Educaterers hold the Food for Life Served Here (FFLSH) Silver Catering Mark in recognition of the fact that their school catering teams serve local, fresh and honest food made with quality ingredients which is prepared and served in a setting that takes school pupils’ health and well-being seriously. This means that any school catered for by Educaterers has already achieved 13 out of the 27 criteria for the Bronze School Award.

Food for Life in Warwickshire is in the final year of its current commission and Public Health are keen to continue funding the programme; but with challenging financial targets this could be the last chance for some schools to enrol and get one-to-one support, resources and training to achieve their Food For Life Award for free.

The Food for Life scheme started in schools – and over 10,000 schools now serve food to FFLSH standards – but you will also find Food for Life meals served in many other places including universities, colleges, early years settings, hospitals and care homes. Over 1.7 million Food for Life meals are served a day all around the UK.

Holding the Award shows that you are making positive contributions to the health, wellbeing and education of your pupils through the following four sections:

Food Quality lets your staff, pupils and parents know that the majority of food served in your school is freshly prepared, free from undesirable trans fats, sweeteners and additives, is cooked by trained catering staff, and uses ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources.

Food Leadership empowers pupils, staff and parents to develop a positive food culture in school.

Food Education gets pupils growing food, cooking from scratch and learning where their food comes from.

Community & Partnerships supports schools to share their learning, engage with their local communities and encourage parents to get involved

In addition, Educaterers can support individual schools to achieve the Food For Life Gold Standard by serving a Gold menu upon request. For more information and to enrol, contact Valerie Meehan, Warwickshire Local Programme Manager for Soil Association Food for Life, email vmeehan@soilassociation.org

Nominate a champion storyteller

The Year of Wellbeing campaign is looking for people with a story to tell about something they’ve done to improve health and wellbeing – for themselves, their team, their customers or their communities.

We want to bring to life real local stories about the day-to-day positive change that people create.

The short stories and films produced will support the public campaign for the Coventry and Warwickshire Year of Wellbeing 2019 and will be shared widely including online.

Our 'champion' story-tellers can be anyone, in any role, at any level in an organisation or outside it! They do not need to be aspiring actors, just have a passion for what they do that makes a difference and be happy to share it.

Not sure who to nominate? Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking:

• Someone who works in a different way and has changed their workplace to improve health and wellbeing. 
• Someone who encourages fitness or healthy eating and actively gets others involved. 
• Someone with lived experience who has used that experience to help themselves and others feel better. 
• Someone who provides health and wellbeing help and support to others over and above their role. 
• You! If you have a story to tell, you can put yourself forward. 

Nominees will be invited to a workshop where they will learn skills for telling stories and using personal technology to film themselves.

Nominations need to be in by Thursday 12 July. To nominate, simply email Jane Coates (janecoates@warwickshire.gov.uk) with the name and contact details. And don't forget to ask the person you are nominating first! 

News from Governor Services

As the academic year comes to an end and just before you put away your school governance work for a few weeks during the summer break the Governor Services Team would like to say thank you for the time and support you give to our schools and we look forward to working with you all in the new academic year.

Changes within Governor Services

We welcome Joanna Wain to our team.  Jo joins us as an Administrative Clerk for the Warwickshire Clerking Service and will be working closely with Gurby to support her in managing and developing the Clerking Service. 

You can contact Joanna on 01926 7458097 or by email: joannawain@warwickshire.gov.uk

We also welcome Sundari Cleal who joins us as a School Governance Administrative Assistant.  Sundari’s main responsibilities will be to provide the administrative support for our Training and Support Programme. This involves taking course bookings, course enquiries and producing the delegate packs for training events.  In addition she will be updating the governor database when you notify us of any changes to your governing board.

Sundari can be contacted on: 01926 745120 or by email: sundaricleal@warwickshire.gov.uk

Training

We provide a comprehensive training programme for all school governors, clerks and head teachers, whether in maintained or academy schools. Places on training sessions are available to all schools.

For subscribing schools these will be free of charge and for non-subscribing schools there is a charge per delegate.

Click here to view our Training and Support Programme (April 2018 – March 2019) which lists courses available from September.

If you would like to book on a course, or for further information please:

• Email your booking or enquiry to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk,
• Telephone Governor Services on 01926 745120
• Book via the WES website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wes

When booking a course, in addition to quoting the course reference number, title and date, please provide:

• the name of the person attending the training event
• the school / setting they are from
• a contact email address and telephone number

If your governing board does not subscribe to Warwickshire Governor Services and you think it would be useful to do so, please contact Gurby Dhesi to discuss your requirements:
Email - gurbydhesi@warwickshire.gov.uk
Telephone – 01926 745 137

Joint letter to school governors and trustees

In celebration of Volunteers' Week (1-7 June 2018), the National Governance Association, the Association of School and College Leaders and the National Association of Head Teachers have published a joint letter to thank school governors and trustees for their remarkable contribution to education.   

Safeguarding

December 2017 saw the DfE publish a consultation on proposed changes to its statutory safeguarding guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education (“KCSIE”). The consultation closed at the end of February 2018.

A draft of the revised KCSIE guidance has also now been published so that schools and colleges can plan for the commencement of the new guidance on the 3rd September 2018.

This draft is for guidance purposes only and until the 3rd September 2018, the existing statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe In Education, 2016 is still in force and is what schools and colleges must continue to have regard to.

When the revised KCSIE is published and comes into force on 3rd September 2018 it will be fully reflective of schools’ and colleges’ role in the new safeguarding partner arrangements. The updated KCSIE 2018 will also include updated guidance on information sharing practice under the new GDPR regulations and the Data Protection Act.

The draft KCSIE 2018 guidance can be accessed here. Part Two of the draft statutory guidance looks at the management of safeguarding and the responsibility of Governing Bodies, proprietors and Management Committees, with specific regards to:

• Legislation and the law;
• Safeguarding policies and procedures;
• The designated safeguarding lead;
• Multi-agency working;
• Information sharing;
• Staff training;
• Online safety;
• Opportunities to teach safeguarding; and
• Safer recruitment.

The DfE has also published revised Child on Child Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment advice.

This follows an inquiry by the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee which in 2014 found that 59% of girls and young women aged between 13 and 21 said they had faced some form of sexual harassment at school or college in the previous year. The advice covers schools’ legal responsibilities, a whole school approach to prevention, and responding to a report of sexual violence or harassment.

Academies Financial Handbook

The Education and Skills Funding Agency have updated their Academies Financial Handbook.

The 2018 edition of the handbook is effective from 1st September 2018. It strengthens expectations about the process for setting executive pay and explains new requirements for related party transactions.

The main changes to the handbook are summarised on pages 6 and 7 of the updated handbook.

Charging for School Activities

The DfE has updated the guidance, provided to help schools set out their policies on charging for school activities and visits, to take account of the new Universal Credit regulations.

Changes to information schools must publish online - September 2018

Department for Education’s (DfE) guidance - What maintained schools must publish online

The DfE has updated the above guidance. There is a new requirement to provide information about a school’s careers programme for years 8 to 13 pupils (which is with effect from September 2018) as follows together with other amendments:

Careers programme information

This must include:

• name, email address and telephone of the school’s Careers Leader
• a summary of the careers programme
• how the school measures and assesses the impact of the programme
• date of the next review of the published information

KS4 results

English Baccalaureate attainment measure has changed to an average point score showing pupils’ point scores across the 5 pillars of the EBacc

DfE performance tables

Now requires a link to the school’s performance table page on the DfE’s website as well as the link to the DfE’s main performance tables page

Curriculum

Within the requirement to publish the content of your school curriculum in each academic year for every subject, the DfE has added ‘including Religious Education even if it is taught as part of another subject or subjects, or is called something else’

PE and Sports premium (for lower/primary)

Now requires additional information about swimming and how many pupils within your year 6 cohort can do each of the following:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

Governors’ information and duties

Now required to include the following additional information:

• full name, date of appointment, term of office, date left and appointing body
• any material interests arising from relationships between governors and between governors and school staff
• attendance record at governing board and committee meetings for the last academic year

Department for Education’s (DfE) guidance - What academies, free schools and colleges should publish online

The DfE has updated its guidance on what academies should publish online. An academy’s funding agreement will specify what must be published on its website.

Exclusion arrangements

The recommendation to publish an exclusion policy has been removed.

KS4 results

As for maintained schools, the English Baccalaureate results, the attainment measure has changed to an average point score showing pupils’ point scores across the 5 pillars of the EBacc

KS5 (16-18)

Publish a link to your 16 to 18 performance tables page

Curriculum

Within the suggestion to publish the content of your academy’s curriculum in each academic year for every subject, the DfE has added ‘including for mandatory subjects such as Religious Education even if it is taught as part of another subject or subjects, or is called something else’

Special educational needs (SEN) information report

Academies and free schools must publish a report on their policy for pupils or students with SEN and how they put the policy into effect.

Academy Trust Governance Vacancies

Academy trusts, including free schools, must notify the ESFA about the appointment or vacating of governance roles within their trust. The Academies Financial Handbook clearly sets out the requirements for Trusts to provide:

• information and direct contact details for the Chair of Trustees, Chairs of the local governing bodies, Accounting Officer and Chief Financial Officer
• information for all members, trustees and local governors.

Trusts must notify the ESFA within 28 days of opening, and subsequently within 14 days of any changes being made, using the GIAS (Get Information About Schools) service.

Individual academies within MATs should also record their head teacher information on GIAS and keep this up to date.

Inspiring Governance

Inspiring Governance is a free, online service that connects schools and trusts in England with skilled volunteers.

Does your Governing Board have a ‘Professional Clerk’?

There has been a lot of focus on the role of Members, Trustees/Directors and Governors within a school’s Governing Board, yet there is another important role which has evolved but can all too often be taken for granted – that of the Clerk.

The DfE’s 2017 Governance Handbook  (4.4 The professional clerk pg. 36) states that “High quality professional clerking is crucial to the effective functioning of the board. The clerk should be the boards’ ‘governance professional’.”

Gone are the days when the Clerk was simply the minute-taker in the room.

The increased expectations of the Clerk, supporting and guiding a group of volunteers, have been brought to the forefront through the publication of the DfE’s Clerking Competency Framework. This Framework highlights the: Vital role of the Clerk in supporting the six key features of effective governance, as identified in the Governance Competency Framework:

• Strategic Leadership that sets and champions vision, ethos and strategy with the Clerk supporting the Chair and the Board in remaining strategic at all times;
• Accountability that drives up educational standards and financial performance with the Clerk supporting the Board to identify information requirements and questions that could be asked of the Senior Leadership Team;
• People with the Clerk supporting the Board to recruit, induct and train individuals with the right skill sets;
• Structures that reinforce clearly defined roles and responsibilities and ensuring the Board is properly constituted;
• Compliance with professional clerking providing knowledgeable and confident support to the Board to ensure compliance with the relevant legal frameworks and governance requirements of the organisation; and
• Evaluation to help monitor and improve the quality and impact of governance.

The four core competencies that are expected from all school / academy Clerks:

• Understanding Governance with a sound understanding of the Board’s duties and responsibilities and the wider context in which the Board is operating, the Clerk will be able to make an important contribution to the Board’s effectiveness.
• Advice and Guidance by understanding governance, the Clerk will be able to provide better quality advice on legal and procedural matters related to governance, assisting in a more effective strategic decision-making process.
• Administration taking care of the administrative side enables the Chair and the Board to make more effective use of their time, focusing on strategic matters.
• People and Relationships professional clerking plays an important role in ensuring the Board has accurate records of its members and their skills. Good relationships are also essential to establishing open communication and ensuring smooth information flows between key stakeholders.

Does your Board use a professional Clerk for all of their meetings, including committee meetings - someone who has been given training in both the role and responsibilities of a clerk and is given the time to carry out the role and is not just seen as a ‘minute taker’?

It is good practice that your Board does not use:

• A member of school staff, raising the issue of potential conflict of interest; and
• A governor to minute meetings. This will result in the governor not being able to fully engage in Board/Committee discussions, reducing their strategic effectiveness.

A professional Clerk doesn’t always have to be employed by the School / Academy Trust - there is also the option of using the Warwickshire Clerking Service. If you would like to know more about how the Warwickshire Clerking Service can work to effectively support your Board, please ring Gurby Dhesi on 01926 745137 or email gurbydhesi@warwickshire.gov.uk

Head teacher Recruitment Guidance

Just a reminder that Head teacher recruitment guidance has been published by the DfE and NGA.

The guidance outlines the different stages of the process including:

• planning and setting up a selection panel
• preparing the application pack
• advertising and promotion
• the interview itself and the actions to be taken once an appointment is made

The NGA have developed a toolkit alongside the guidance comprising practical checklists and templates for boards to use to support the recruitment process, including shortlisting templates, suggested interview questions and a checklist of things to consider when using a recruitment agency.

With the recruitment of a school leader being arguably one of the most important tasks a board will undertake, the guidance aims to steer governing boards through the legal context and principles of recruitment.

Action for Clerks / Chair of Governors

When a Chair of Governors at a local authority maintained school receives their Head teacher’s written resignation, either the Clerk or Chair of Governors must immediately inform Heather Imbush at Governor Services and, in the case of Church Schools, especially Voluntary Aided Schools, the relevant Diocese.

Heather can be contacted by telephone: 01926 742635 or by email: heatherimbush@warwickshire.gov.uk

Heather can then update our records and advise you on the support available to your school and governing board.

Head teacher Resignation Dates and Notice Periods (Maintained Schools)

To leave their post at the end of the Summer Term a Head teacher must give a minimum of 4 months’ notice.

This means:

Key Governing Board Tasks for the Autumn Term

Ongoing Tasks for the Governing Board

• Monitor school improvement plan
• Organise induction, support and training for governors
• Arrange governors’ visits to the school
• Appoint clerk
• Establish governing board committees
• Review delegation of functions and committee structures
• Review terms of reference of committees
• Receive curriculum area reports
• Receive reports on and review pupil progress (including pupils within special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision)
• Approve new policies/review existing policies (where appropriate)
• Complete asset management plan
• Receive friends'/parents’ association report
• See and agree the school's self-evaluation
• Prepare for Ofsted inspection
• Review safeguarding arrangements
• Review the quality of teaching
• Complete the School Financial Value Standard (SFVS)
• Ensure governor details are updated on the national database of governors on Get information about schools

Specific Tasks for the Governing Board

• Elect chair and vice chair (and schedule next elections)
• Set dates of meetings for the year
• Decide committee structure, membership and terms of reference
• Set objectives for the governing board for the year
• Receive head teacher's report
• Review head teacher's performance
• Review the school's charging policy, for example for school trips
• Draw up freedom of information publication scheme
• Approve school improvement plan
• Review appraisal policy
• Set pupil performance targets
• Review public examination and national test results
• Receive report from school improvement partner/external adviser
• Review pupil welfare information, including strengths and areas for development identified by staff with responsibility for safeguarding and PSHE, citizenship and careers guidance (‘learning for life’)

DfE Updates / Documents / Guidance

Guidance - Multi-academy trusts: Establishing and developing your trustGuidance and resources for academy trusts, including those establishing new trusts and existing trusts planning to grow.

News story - Education Secretary issues call to arms for school governors:

Damian Hinds calls on leading employers to lend their business expertise to support schools to improve education for every child

Managing behaviour and bullying in schools case studies: Case studies from schools showing good practice in dealing with bullying, disciplining poor behaviour and encouraging good behaviour.

Approaches to preventing and tackling bullying: Research into anti- bullying practices used by schools to prevent and tackle bullying, including case studies.

Assessing EAL New Arrivals

The Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service provide training for schools on assessing EAL new arrivals. Two free funded places are offered to all Local Authority primary schools (additional places charged at £180 per person)

1.5 day training course to be held on the following dates:

Friday 21st September 2018, 9.30 – 16.00 and Friday 28^th September 2018, 9.30 – 12.30.

Venue:  Pound Lane Learning Centre, Pound Lane, Leamington Spa, CV32 7RT

Feedback has shown it is essential for participating schools to send two staff members, ideally one senior teacher (SENCO / EALCO) and one TA for schools to get the best outcomes from the training

Training includes assessment materials.  Drinks will be provided.

You will need to bring a packed lunch.

Charge to Academy Schools:  £180 per person

To book please click here

Please note cancellations made within 5 days of training will incur a £20 charge

Supporting students with SEMH: sharing good practice event

Warwickshire SEND and Inclusion invite you to attend a celebration event recognising good practice in supporting pupils with SEMH needs in Warwickshire 

When: 27^th September 2018, 8.00am - 12.30pm at the Ambleside Sport Club, Nuneaton

Free to all state funded Warwickshire Schools

Selection of pastries, toast, jams, sausage and bacon batches, fruit and drinks on arrival.

Audience: will be of interest to Primary Head Teachers and will also be beneficial to Secondary Head Teachers supporting transition

This event will showcase the excellent work being done to support pupils experiencing SEMH difficulties in Warwickshire's Primary Schools and provide an opportunity to co-produce the SEND and Inclusion strategy

To book a place please click here

Improve students’ reading, vocabulary & comprehension through Inference Training

Inference training is a group intervention for pupils in KS2 and KS3 who decode adequately but fail to get full meaning and enjoyment from their reading. Evidence suggests one in ten pupils who decode satisfactorily, fail to get full meaning and enjoyment from reading.

One day training for SENCOs, Teachers,TAs 

Date: Tuesday 25^th September 2018

Venue: The Pound Lane Learning Centre, Leamington Spa, CV32 7RT

Time: 9:30 – 4pm - Lunch is provided.

Key Information about Inference Training:

• Inference training was highly recommended in Professor Greg Brooks’ study 'What works for children and young people with literacy difficulties'
• It is for KS2/3 pupils who decode adequately but experience comprehension difficulties
• It is a group intervention but training includes whole school strategies to boost comprehension
• In the group intervention, four pupils work with an adult (trained Level 2/3 TA or Teacher) for 40 minutes a session, twice a week for ten weeks. (But adults need an extra 20 minutes per lesson to include planning and recording time)
• Groups that have two sessions a week for 8-10 weeks make an average of 12 months progress in comprehension age (2/3 sub levels)
• The Inference Folder/DVD is only available to schools that access the training.

Costs

Cost per delegate: £190 for two people from subscribing schools.   £240 for two people from non-subscribing schools.

One resource folder per pair provided.

Additional delegate: £40 from subscribing school.   £60 non-subscribing school. 

For further information contact:

joannearrowsmith@warwickshire.gov.uk or janebennett@warwickshire.gov.uk

or call: 01926 413777

Inspire the next generation with RSPCA’s Compassionate Class

Primary schools across England and Wales are invited to sign up to a new education scheme which will help teach KS2 children compassion and empathy through learning about animal welfare.

Compassionate Class offers schools the chance to inspire the next generation to become compassionate citizens of the future. It also acts as a compelling and interesting way to cover areas of the curriculum whilst learning about what makes animals happy and healthy.

The aim is to prevent animal cruelty in the future and help create a kinder society.

Schools who sign up to the scheme will be able to cover the PSHE curriculum plus support Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education (SMSC) and other core subjects through engaging activities and resources provided by the RSPCA.

David Allen, Head of Education at the RSPCA said: “We are delighted to be rolling this scheme out nationally and hope that as many schools as possible sign up to become compassionate classes.

“Compassionate Class teaches children about the five animal welfare needs, the resources gets them talking and debating about the importance of animals and creates an awareness of how we should respect them and each other. In turn, we hope this will help to create a kinder society in the future.”

There will even be a chance to showcase what the class have learnt by entering a competition to win the title of ‘The Most Compassionate Class of 2019’. Plus there are a number of visits to RSPCA animal centres to be won where children will be able to see some of the animals the charity cares for.

There are limited spaces available so sign your school up today.

To sign up visit www.rspca.org.uk/compassionateclass

Autism Education Trust Training Tier 2

Develop capacity to meet the needs of pupils on the Autism Spectrum by signing up for....

Autism Education Trust Training Tier 2

9.00-3.30pm

We offer a nationally acclaimed face to face, personalised, multi-tier training programme, supported and quality assured by the Department for Education.

Cost: £175 per delegate for a full day course, including resource packs, plus additional workshop training and a resource trail.

Lunch will not be provided, however refreshments will be available throughout the day.

Click here to view the flyer

Closing the Gap / Autumn Term Headteachers' Conference

The Headteachers' Conference in the Autumn Term will be combined with a 'Closing the Gap in Warwickshire' Conference.  This whole day event is a free CPD opportunity for all Warwickshire schools.

The agenda will include:

• early findings and evidence of impact from the DfE Strategic School Improvement Fund 'Narrowing the Gap' project
• an opportunity to hear from Sir John Dunford, Chair of Whole Education and trustee of the Learn Academy Trust in South Leicestershire. John was the government's National Pupil Premium Champion from 2013 to 2015
• key updates from the County Council (Head of Service and Strategic Leads in Education and Learning) 

Date: Thursday 15th November 2018

Time: 8.30am - 3.30pm

Venue: To be confirmed.

Please look out for a booking form to be emailed to the headteacher before the end of the summer term.